Many types of medical devices having an elongate shaft for insertion into a body passageway and intended for intermittent or short term use are known, such as urinary catheters for intermittent catheterization, stents, etc. In such medical devices, the shaft, or at least a core substrate of the shaft, is typically made of a durable thermoplastic materials, such as polyethylene, polypropylene or polyvinyl chloride. However, even though said materials are extremely durable, and well suited for the intended use of the medical supplies, their disposal can be problematic, and even hazardous to the environment. For example, thermoplastics such as polyethylene and polypropylene are non-biodegradable and can persist for many years in the environment. Furthermore, such materials are often soiled by biological substances, making recycling of these materials difficult.
Further, medical devices, such as urinary catheters, are often used by users outside hospitals, and even outside the home environment. For example, catheterization may typically take place in public rest rooms. However, in such situations it may often be difficult to find a suitable waste bin for disposal of the catheter after use, and the disposal also involves the risk of unhygienic treatment, spillage etc. Further, disposal of the catheter in a waste bin may also be inconvenient, unpleasant and embarrassing for the user.
There has been attempts to produce similar types of medical devices with degradable material. For example, WO 2006/071813 discloses the use of hydrolytically degradable polymers, for use in medical suppliances, e.g. cannulas, catheters and gloves. However, with this material, the degradation takes very long time, viz. within 6 months after contact with a wetting fluid, which makes the products unsuitable for flushing etc. A similar product is disclosed in EP 0 628 586. Accordingly, these known products does not adequately solve that above-discussed problems.
A problem when flushing a product down in a W.C. is that it must decompose quickly and readily in the sewerage system, otherwise it will give rise to pollution and plumbing problems. Of course, the user must be confident that the device will be flushed and pass through the plumbing system, without causing stoppage and cloggage.
Further, there has been attempts to make bags for human body waste, such as ostomy bags and urine bags, degradable, and even flushable. For example, such bags are disclosed in EP 0 388 924, GB 2 083 762 and EP 1 722 730. However, the therein disclosed materials are not suited for use as medical devices having elongated shafts, such as catheters.
There is therefore a need for flushable disposable medical devices having elongated shafts, such as catheters, that are made from inexpensive starting materials and that can be produced by conventional production processes in order to allow efficient commercialization of such devices.